One hundred and ten years have elapsed since Diomed won the first race
for what has since been called the "Blue Ribbon of the Turf," and
to-day the Derby is as much in favour as it has been in any previous
year. Countless thousands assemble on Epsom Downs to witness each
recurring anniversary. During the first thirty years of its existence
the race was of slow growth so far as the subscribers and the number
of horses running was concerned, but its popularity was soon to grow,
and considering the difficulties of locomotion on bad roads and other
obstructions, the attendance on the Downs on the day set for the
great struggle became very considerable, although nothing like what
it was destined to become when railways had made travelling easy and
inexpensive.
It was propounded as a question in the columns of one of the sporting
journals some years ago that it would be interesting to know how many
men were alive who had seen the race run about the year 1820, or even
a year or two later; but I do not know if any, or how many answers
were returned. In Bluegown's year, however, I conversed at a wayside
tavern with an old man who was making his way to Epsom Downs on foot,
who had, as a child, seen Eleanor win the Derby of 1801. Among the
horse-racing men of Yorkshire there are three or four reputed to be
alive who have witnessed more than fifty consecutive races for the St.
Leger, and there may, perhaps, be people yet living who have as many
times witnessed the struggle for the Derby. Curiously enough, when I
ventured in my history of the "Blue Ribbon of the Turf" to renew this
question, which is, I think, neither frivolous nor devoid of interest,
I was "heavily sneered at" by one of the cocksure critics of the period
who thought the matter unworthy of consideration.
The race at the date of Eleanor's victory was twenty-two years old,
having been instituted in 1780. During the first ten years of the
Derby the accumulated stakes amounted to 11,005 gs. When the race
was inaugurated the number of subscribers was thirty-six, and the
following is a list of the horses which formed the field: Sir Charles
Bunbury's Diomed, Major O'Kelly's Bowdrow, Mr. Walker's Spitfire, Sir
F. Evelyn's Wotton, Mr. Panton's colt by Herod, Duke of Cumberland's
colt by Eclipse, Mr. Dulsh's colt by Cardinal Puff, Mr. Delme's colt by
Gimcrack, and the Duke of Bolton's Bay Bolton.
As regards the number of subscriptions to the race in its earlier days,
it may be here recorded that up to and including 1800 the following
figures denote the entries: 36, 35, 35, 34, 30, 29, 29, 33, 30, 30,
32, 32, 32, 50, 49, 45, 45, 37, 37, 33, and 33, respectively.
Nothing of much interest can be written regarding the earlier years of
the Derby. As is well known to persons versed in the history of the
turf, the race was instituted by, or at any rate was named after the
twelfth Earl of Derby, who was also, as has been already mentioned,
sponsor for the Oaks. Could the future celebrity of the great event
have been foreseen, we should not be without full particulars of the
earlier struggles for victory; but a hundred years ago the sporting
reporter was evidently not of much account; at any rate, the newspapers
of the time (1780 to 1800) do little more than record that the race
was run. Brief comments began to be offered upon the Derby in 1802 and
following years; these, however, were exceedingly curt, consisting
usually of such observations as "Won easy," or "Won very easy." The
race of 1805, won by Lord Egremont's Cardinal Beaufort, was commented
on in the following fashion: "Won by a neck. There was much betting
on this race. Mr. Best's colt was thrown down by some horsemen
imprudently crossing the course before all the race-horses had passed,
and his rider, B. Norton, was bruised by the fall." In the following
year, 1806, when Lord Foley's Paris won the Derby, we obtain a better
account of the race: "At half-past one they started, and went at a good
speed to Tattenham Corner, on which it was observed that Shepherd,
who rode Paris, rather pulled, whilst Trafalgar was making play;
notwithstanding, Lord Egremont was backed to win. Upon coming to the
distance point, Trafalgar ran neck and neck, in which situation they
continued till within a few yards of the winning-post, when Shepherd
made a desperate push and won the race by about half a head."
In 1813, when Sir Charles Bunbury's Smolensko was declared the winner,
having beaten eleven opponents, there were, as in the three succeeding
years, 51 entries for the Derby, a number, however, which pretty
soon began to be exceeded. In 1827, the year in which Lord Jersey's
Mameluke landed the prize from twenty-two competitors, 89 horses had
been entered for the race, the same number curiously enough being set
forth in the three succeeding years. In 1831 (Spaniel's year) the 100
had been topped, and the fields of runners, as was to be expected, had
also considerably increased. In Priam's year, for instance (1830), 28
horses were found at the starting-post. That number was not, however,
maintained; but from that year to 1841, 23, 22, 25, 23, 14, 21, 17,
23, 21, 17, and 19, respectively, faced the starter, while in 1851
the field of competitors numbered 33 animals. As a corollary of the
big entries and increasing fields, the money to be run for increased
so that the stakes became of importance and worth winning, especially
in 1848, when the number of horses entered for the race had reached
the handsome total of 215 different animals, a number which in after
years was occasionally exceeded, as for instance in 1879, when Sir
Bevys was hailed as victor, the horses entered for that year's Blue
Ribbon numbered no less than 278. Since then the largest entries have
occurred in 1880 (257) and 1890 (233), when Bend Or and Sainfoin won
respectively.
The terms on which the Derby was first run for were 50 gs. for each
horse taking part in the race, non-starters paying half that amount;
the distance run during the first three years was one mile, and the
weights carried were respectively 8 st. for colts, and 7 st. 11 lb. for
fillies; the weights were altered in the year 1784, and again in the
years 1801, 1803, 1807, as also in 1865.
In 1782 the second horse began to be paid £100 out of the stakes; in
1869 the sums given to the runners-up were respectively £300 and £150
for first and second. At a previous date sums were deducted from the
stakes for police expenses and the judge! The stake run for by Diomed,
the first winner of the Derby, would amount to 1,125 gs., and for the
next ten or twelve years the sum raced for was seldom under 1,000 gs. A
good many years elapsed before the 2,000 gs. was topped, but a time was
coming when even double that amount was thought a small sum with which
to reward the owner of a Derby winner. In Lord Lyons' year (1866) the
stakes reached £7,350, and again in 1879 when Fordham won on Sir Bevys,
the sum of the stakes amounted to over £7,000, whilst £5,000 and even
£6,000 were on several occasions placed to the credit of the owner of
the winning horse.
On the day that Pyrrhus the First won the Derby, which was in the
year 1846, the "time" taken to run the race was for the first time
ascertained--it was two minutes and fifty-five seconds; but on two
or three occasions two minutes and forty-three seconds was the time
indicated; whilst on three anniversaries the running of the race has
exceeded three minutes, the distance being one mile and a half. Many
racing men do not believe in the time test, thinking it impossible to
ascertain with the necessary precision the precise moment of the start
and finish.
Not till the advent of a sporting newspaper--now dead, but famous in
its day, _Bell's Life in London_--did the Derby become popular with
the people. It has been said that "Bell made the race," and the saying
is undoubtedly to some extent true, as in the course of time that
journal began to devote special attention to the Derby, giving a minute
history of the breeding and performances of those horses likely to
take part in the struggle. A feature of the work undertaken by "Bell"
was greatly relished, namely, a very full description of the Sunday
gallops of the various competitors on Epsom Downs, a special edition
of the paper being issued with the information, containing also the
latest quotations of "the odds." As time went on these features of
_Bell's Life_ were eagerly looked for and enjoyed, the circulation of
the journal being considerably increased by the pains taken to give
accurate reports. Then the day of the race came in for an immense
amount of journalistic attention, the struggle itself and all its
incidents being minutely described, the throng of people on the routes
to and from Epsom, and all the varied occurrences which characterised
the journey, being graphically described.
Nowadays the "form" of the horses which compete in the Derby is so well
known as time progresses that no special efforts of the kind alluded to
are made; moreover, nearly every newspaper devotes so much attention
to "sport" that no person need be ignorant of any matter connected with
the turf, and particularly the great race for the Blue Ribbon.
Railways to-day give such ready access to even distant seats of racing
sport that men are enabled to witness every year as many races as they
please, at a moderate cost in the way of expenditure. But for all that,
Epsom on each recurring Derby Day becomes a focus of attraction, being
annually visited by tens of thousands of persons, "the masses," of
course, predominating; "the classes," however, being always largely
represented, members of the Peerage having usually a personal interest
in the race as owners, perhaps, of some of the competitors, or are
found attending in the hope of seeing the horse of a friend prove
victorious.
"The classes," indeed, have always been liberal supporters of the Epsom
Derby; the patrician element was wont, indeed, to predominate in the
list of nominators. In the year of the centenary of the race no less
than eighty-four of the horses nominated had been entered by princes
and peers, one of the number standing in the name of the nobleman who
in that year had been appointed Lord High Commissioner to the General
Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Upwards of a century ago the race
was won by the then Prince of Wales; but before that day, and often
since, the luck of the lords and other titled gentlemen in gaining
Derby honours has been conspicuous. From 1787, when Lord Derby won with
Sir Peter Teazle, the race fell in eleven consecutive years to titled
gentlemen, and from 1801 there came another series of eleven years in
which titled owners came to the front; whilst ever since, the dukes,
lords, and baronets have had a fair share of the honours of both the
Derby and the Oaks. On thirty-two occasions the Blue Ribbon has fallen
to a duke.
Although "nomination" to run in the race requires to be made when the
animals are yearlings--long before it can be known whether or not they
will be able to compete with advantage to their owners--large numbers
of horses are annually entered for it. At one time the value of a
race-horse was greatly increased by its being entered for the Derby;
so much so, indeed, that breeders and other owners would frequently
enter as many as half-a-dozen animals, in the hope that one of them
might win. Now, however, so many more richly endowed races are run
in the course of the year that in time the Derby may come to be less
cared about by owners of blood stock. Races are at present run of the
value of £10,000, which largely exceeds the value of the Derby stake.
Gentlemen go to great expense in the purchase of yearlings which they
think likely to shape into winners of the classic races. One nobleman
is known to have expended many thousand pounds in the course of his
life in the hope of being at last placed in possession of a horse good
enough to prove victorious. On some occasions the Blue Ribbon has
been won by animals that cost a comparatively small sum, and several
gentlemen have taken the prize by aid of a horse bred by themselves.
Again, animals which have won have been sold at a very high figure;
two of these may be named--Blair Athol, which once changed hands for
£10,000; and Doncaster, which was said to have been sold for £14,000.
Jockeys, we believe, still look upon the winning of a Derby as being
the highest honour they can attain, although they sometimes earn more
money by winning a good handicap on which there is heavy betting.
Large sums are reputed to have occasionally been paid to the rider of
a Derby winner--over £5,000 on one occasion, that being the amount of
the stakes won by one of Sir Joseph Hawley's horses, and given by that
gentleman to its rider. A thousand pounds for riding a Derby winner
has come to be looked upon as quite a common fee; but in the earlier
days of the great Epsom event no such figures were heard of, and upon
one occasion, when a boy was paid £20 by the greatly gratified owner
of a Derby winner, the circumstance was remarked upon as being without
precedent, and an act of munificence. The big sums paid of late may be
said to be in the nature of insurance, as jockeys before now have been
known to be offered large sums not to win, and it has been said that
such bribes have oftener than once proved effective.
The "superb groan" of Lord George Bentinck has become historical.
Lord George, whose chief ambition as a sportsman was to win a Derby,
had parted with his stud of horses in order that he might devote his
whole attention to politics, and among the animals disposed of was
Surplice, winner of the Derby of 1848. As may be supposed, the noble
lord was deeply chagrined to find that he had parted with a horse that
won a trophy of which he had long been in search. On the day after the
race, Lord Beaconsfield tells us that he found Lord George in the
library of the House of Commons with a book in his hand, but "looking
disturbed." His resolutions in favour of the colonial interest, after
all his labours, had been negatived by the committee on the 22nd, and
on the 24th his horse, Surplice, which he had parted with among the
rest of his stud solely that he might pursue, without distraction, his
work on behalf of the great interests of the country, had won that
paramount and Olympian stake to gain which had been the object of his
life. He had nothing to console him and nothing to sustain him, except
his pride. Even that deserted him before a heart which he knew at least
would yield him sympathy. He gave a sort of superb groan: "All my life
I have been trying for this, and for what have I sacrificed it?" he
murmured. It was in vain to offer solace. "You do not know what the
Derby is," he moaned out. "Yes, I do, it is the Blue Ribbon of the
Turf."
In London Derby Day is in many respects a holiday; thousands of even
the most industrious men of business journey to Epsom to obtain a peep
at the chief event of the racing year. Even the House of Commons either
contrives to adjourn expressly for the day, or so manages that it is
not sitting on that particular occasion.
The Derby Day, with its attendant incidents, has been so often
described that there is little or nothing left to say which can be
endowed with the form of novelty. Writers, grave and gay, have written
accounts of the great race and its surroundings from many points of
view. What has been seen on the way to Epsom Downs has been over and
over again described in graphic language. To the Derby, by road or
rail, has afforded the industrious descriptive reporter yards of
"copy"; incidents, comic and pathetic, have been seen or invented by
"our own"; and the suggestion of a London pressman to hark back on the
old accounts and republish them with a little "dressing up" was not a
bad one. An industrious penman might find in some of the descriptions
written twenty years ago matter that, judiciously recompiled, would not
be without a considerable thread of interest.
The number of persons who annually witness the running for the Derby
Stakes has been variously stated by statisticians, and has been guessed
at half a million; but other writers do not think the attendance ever
exceeded two hundred and fifty thousand individuals; and one or two
well-informed persons who have ventured to take a census of the number
present on the Downs on the Derby Day, do not venture to say that
it exceeds a hundred thousand, all told; but even that figure would
represent a vast multitude of people.
The Derby is no longer the great betting race it was at one time.
Sixty years since, hundreds of thousands of pounds in big sums, it
was thought, would change hands, the bulk of the money going into the
pockets of a few persons, and these generally being in connection with
"the stable." In some years very good prices have been obtained against
the winning horse just previous to the start, and it is a mistake to
suppose, as many people who know no better often do, that "the winner
of the Derby always starts favourite." That is not so.
The "favourite" from Diomed (1780) to Donovan (1889) has won the great
race on thirty-nine occasions, both of the horses named being in
that proud position. In twenty-three of the races for the Derby the
favourite has required to put up with second place, and on fifteen
occasions with third honours only; so that from the beginning, in
1780, to the year in which Donovan was first the favourite has won or
been placed as many as seventy-seven times, leaving victory or place
honours to be attained by outsiders, or at any rate, non-favourites, in
thirty-two different years. In some years the winner of the race has
started at what may be termed a remunerative price. The starting price
of Hermit, as all the world knows, has been quoted at 100 to 1, but
very likely 50 or at most 66 to 1 would more correctly represent the
rate of the odds; two horses which started at 50 to 1 were Azor (1817)
and Spaniel (1831); Phosphorus (1837), Caractacus (1862), and Doncaster
(1873), were each priced at 40 to 1, at the start. Merry Monarch (1845)
is the only Derby winner which started at 33 to 1; Noble (1786), Lapdog
(1826), Amato, and Bloomsbury (1838-9) were all 30 to 1 chances, and on
ten different occasions the winner of the Derby has figured at 20 to 1
as the field was taken in hand by the starter. Seven times have odds
been laid "on" the winner, whilst "evens" have four times been recorded.
As all interested in horse-racing know, the Derby, till within the
last three years, has been a self-supporting race, and even now it is
only, if at all, a little less so. Harking back, and looking over
Blue Ribbon history, we find that those running horses in the great
Epsom event required to pay for the privilege of doing so a sum of
£50. Gentlemen who entered their horses, but for some reason or other
did not run them, had, according to the conditions, to pouch out £25,
and in the earlier years of the Derby "guineas" were exacted. In the
rubric of the first race no sum is allotted to the second or third
horses, but in 1782 it is mentioned that "the second received 100 gs.
out of the stakes." No allowance would appear, in the earlier years of
the Blue Ribbon, to have been assigned to the other placed horse, but
in the course of time there appeared a clause in the conditions to the
effect that the winner would have to pay £100 towards the expenses of
additional police officers, and some years afterwards another exaction
was made in the form of a fee of £50 to the judge; so that the very
earliest traditions of the race point in the direction of meanness.
How the race for the Derby Stakes was originally organised is not very
well known, but that machinery of some kind existed for collecting
the stakes, and handing the amounts won to the winners of them, may
be taken for granted; indeed, we know that it was so, but, for lack
of authentic information on the subject, it is better not to risk the
publication of merely hearsay statements. For more than a century
British sportsmen have quietly allowed themselves to be, as may be
said, "victims" of a confederacy that "grabbed" all and gave nothing.
Year after year owners of Derby horses generously (perhaps "stupidly"
would be the better word) continued to run against each other simply
for their own money, much to the profit of the money-seeking Company
which leases the racecourse and grand stand on Epsom Downs. Not
till within the last six or seven years has there arisen a serious
demand for the augmentation of the money run for, and, curiously
enough, in most of the schemes which have been ventilated, the Epsom
administration seemed alone to be thought of, even by men whom one
would have expected to be in sympathy rather with those who provided
the means of sport than those who make an inordinate profit out of it.
The concessions made by those who "boss" the Epsom show may be held
to be the outcome of the more profitable stakes which have come into
vogue of late years. The conditions of the race now read as follows:
"The Derby Stakes of 5,000 sovs. for the winner, 500 sovs. for the
nominator of the winner, 300 sovs. for the owner of the second, and 200
sovs. for the owner of the third; colts 9 st.; fillies 8 st. 9 lb., by
subscription of 50 sovs. each, h. ft. if declared by the first Tuesday
in January, 1891, and 10 sovs. only if declared by the first Tuesday in
January, 1890; any surplus to be paid to the winner. About a mile and
a half, starting at the High Level Starting-post. 206 subs., 41 pd. 10
sovs. ft. Closed July 16, 1889."
The above copy of the rubric shows what the movements made to reform
the Derby Stakes have resulted in--namely, the ensuring of a fixed sum
to the owner of the winner, as also a gratuity to the breeder of the
victorious horse, but no increased allowance is to be given to the
animal which comes in second; the third horse, however, will now get
£200 instead of £150. The "proprietors of the race" will probably never
require to afflict their souls by putting their hands in their pockets,
but to change the old time condition at all must have sadly disturbed
their serenity. But that which is demanded of the Epsom magnates is
not what has so tardily been given. Owners of race-horses would most
assuredly have logic on their side if they were to say to the powers
that reign over Epsom heath, "You must do as much for us as we do for
you." The case may be put in a nutshell in this way, namely, that the
two great races run there--Oaks and Derby--bring to the Grand Stand
exchequer a sum of at least £20,000, not one penny of which could
be otherwise pocketed. Say that £5,000 will be required to defray
expenses, and let a similar sum be allocated for division among the
shareholders, and there would still remain £10,000 for division among
those chivalrous sportsmen who enter their horses, and to these men
might well be left the task of organising the division.
The most curious feature of Derby history is undoubtedly how the race
came to be the property of any person or body of persons. It was named
after the Earl of Derby when it was instituted in 1780, but, as has
been mentioned, a long time elapsed before the afterwards great Epsom
event became the popular meeting which it now is. Not till 1831 did the
entry in any year exceed one hundred horses; so that up to that date,
if all the subscribers paid their money, the value of the Derby--the
figure was greatly dependent, of course, on the number of horses that
came to the starting-post--would very seldom reach a sum of £3,000.
Not till George Fordham steered Mr. Acton's Sir Bevys to victory in
1879 did the stake reach its highest value, when, with 278 entries and
22 runners, the sum must have amounted to £7,500, if all who entered
their colts paid their stakes. But long before that son of Favonius
had placed the Blue Ribbon of the Turf to the credit of his owner, the
Epsom Summer Meeting had been placed on a thoroughly business footing,
such a footing as has secured for many years a magnificent dividend to
the proprietors of the grand stand, who are lessees of the course on
which the Derby, Oaks, and other races have for so many years been run;
but it has been said that so far as the gentlemen of England--who run
colts in the Derby or fillies in the Oaks--and their foreign friends
are concerned, they might as well write the names of their horses on
pieces of paper, and shaking them together in a hat, select at random
the first three and divide the money in accordance with the result
of the draw. Minus the excitement attending the race, such a mode of
procedure would be better than allowing their costly horses, provided
at great expense, to run for the benefit of a body of persons who
have a greater love--in all probability a far greater love--for a big
dividend than for sport.
No more curious feature of our present-day civilisation exists than
that a large body of gentlemen (and ladies as well) should enter a
couple of hundreds of the finest horses bred in the kingdom to take
part in a race for the benefit of a joint stock company!
As was recently said by a popular writer, the race for the Derby still
attracts tens of thousands of people to Epsom to see it decided; but
for all that it is thought by persons well qualified to offer an
opinion that the great race has begun to decline, and that, unless
those most interested in its popularity--namely, the lessees of the
racecourse--take immediate steps to increase the value of the stake run
for to a still greater extent than has been yet done the entries will
diminish.
Gentlemen up till 1890 have run for their own money only, but as there
are now several races where the stakes total up to a much higher sum
than in the Derby, it stands to reason that owners of likely horses
will prefer to run them for the races of greater value. The Company
which claims to have a vested interest in the "Blue Ribbon of the
Turf" will require to supplement the value of the race by adding a few
more thousands to the stake. They have made a beginning, but they will
require to do more in the way of money-giving if they are to keep pace
with the big sums now offered as an inducement for men to enter horses
in other stakes.